


Land, Ho!

by WaferBiscuits



Category: Lupin III
Genre: 2 Hour Speed Write, Alternate Universe - Pirate, Boats and Ships, Established Relationship, Historical Inaccuracy, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Monster Jigen, Shark teeth, Tentacles, Yes it's the pirate au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:21:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26187115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WaferBiscuits/pseuds/WaferBiscuits
Summary: After several months of being lost at sea, Lupin spots a gull, a sure sign of land to come. The crew rejoices, with the exception of their First Mate, Jigen. Unbeknownst to all but his Captain, Jigen is cursed with the spirit of the kraken.
Relationships: Jigen Daisuke/Arsène Lupin III
Comments: 1
Kudos: 32





	Land, Ho!

When a gull flew to starboard, a hoarse squall in her throat, the crew could hardly believe they had cause to celebrate.

Lupin spotted it and shouted in that shrill and lusty way of his. His eyes were wild – he leapt towards the creature and all but pounced on it before it waddled backwards and hopped to the deck railing. 

Our crew was a pitiful lot of twenty some ratty and half-starved men. I watched them as they watched their captain chatter and chase the gull off the railing. They watched, silent and sunken-eyed, as it took flight on its stiff wings and glided away. 

Lupin looked little better, with hair stiff from chalky salt and his skin cherry red. He swung around and regarded us all with a toothy grin that looked half-mad. 

“Did you see?” He cried, pointing right at me. “Jigen, did you see it?!”

I nodded. “Aye, Cap’n, a sea bird.”

“A gull, men!” Lupin exclaimed, hands outstretched. “Y’know what that means?” 

The cabin boy, a lad called Gene, piped up, “land not far, Captain? For sure?” 

Lupin nodded, his knees cracking as he knelt and took the boy’s hands in his own. “Aye, lad! And y’know what land means, eh?” His smile never broke. 

“It would mean we’d have something to eat other than dry meal,” the Quartermaster, a stoic man who called himself Goemon, said. “A bed instead of a hammock.”

“Fresh liquor and a hot meal!” Lupin called. 

I watched as the crew’s rumble of disbelief began to swell as their sun-drunk brains took it in. We had been at sea for countless months now, far beyond what Lupin had originally anticipated. Any hope of managing to get ashore had been dashed by hunger and thirst. 

Fortunately, hunger made men stupid, much more so than they already were. 

The realization of Lupin’s discovery was finally dawning on the crew. Their eyes, long dulled, brightened with sudden intelligence. Their mumbling began to roll into cheers. 

Had they been in their right minds, they might’ve noticed me. Not just my presence or my rank, but my condition compared to them. 

While the crew was malnourished, I was well-fed. While their legs trembled from fatigue, I walked with as much assuredness and strength as a fresh horse. While their gums began to bleed from scurvy, my teeth were as knife-sharp as ever. 

I was always very careful as to speak softly and keep my lips close together as to keep them hidden.

Had they bothered to observe their First Mate beyond wary glances, they might had noticed. I was thankful that they hadn’t. I was cautious, extremely so, and with good reason. 

Good news tore through the crew like a storm’s lightening. They turned and scattered to their posts with a frenzy that I wouldn’t have thought possible for a half-dead lot as them. Small knots of men formed as shanties were sung to the time of pulled ropes. 

Lupin strolled over clapped me on the shoulder. He trailed his hand down and squeezed my arm, regarding me with a pleased smirk. “Nothing energizes a crew like good news, eh?”

“Tch, well, we could certainly use a bit of good luck after that run-in with the old man,” I said. I scanned the deck before flashing Lupin a quick, sharp smile. 

As expected, he chirped and shivered in a delighted, skittish way that I absolutely loved. “Aw, well, it wasn’t so much Pops but running out of biscuits and rum that really started to do the lot in.” 

With the crew dedicated in full-force to their work, I dared to bring an arm around Lupin’s shoulders. “Is food really that necessary to you mortals?” I asked in a husky whisper. 

“Pfft, mortals!” Lupin snickered, choking back a full laugh as he leaned into my arm. He looked at me with a fond smile, a smile that I knew he reserved for me and me only, before sighing and pressing his forehead to the crook of my neck. 

This kind of intimacy was something we rarely did in public, more by my choice than Lupin’s. I knew that if I had even so much as flinched, he would have backed off immediately. 

“Is this OK?” he asked, his cheek against my chest. A little further down, and he’d hear my heart beating irregularly to the roll of the tide. 

“Yes,” I whispered. “For minute or so, anyway.”

“I’m counting the seconds, then.” Lupin chuckled. 

I knew that wasn’t a joke. He was timing the duration of the touch in his head. 

“When we get to shore…” I began.

“You won’t leave the ship, I know,” Lupin finished quietly.

I frowned. “It’s not that I won’t, pearl, it’s that I can’t.”

Lupin sighed. I felt his cool breath ghost across my chest. “I know, I know.”

I recalled the last time I had attempted to join the crew on land and go into a seaside town at Lupin’s insistence, many years ago. I only remember taking a few steps beyond the reach of the sandbar, and then darkness. Beyond that, I only recall waking up to Lupin sobbing a string of apologies, his palms cupping my cheeks, his thumb grazing the scar furrowed over my throat. 

The sea is what allows me to still live among men. I know and respect that even more so now. I cannot leave it.

And to be truly honest, the real terror in that is not having any real drive or longing to go beyond it. I even feel nauseas when I’m on sand. 

A minute must have passed. Lupin pulled himself away and looked at me in the eye. “Can I take your hand?” he asked.

I answered by taking his in mine, threading our fingers together.

We stood like that in silence for a moment, but I could hear the gears churning in Lupin’s skull. 

With our hands linked, I guided him the short distance to his cabin. It was the only quarters that lay above rather than below the deck. It was only a door away from potential looks.

Soon as I had shut the door behind me, Lupin snaked his arms around my waist in a firm embrace. 

“Easy,” I said, “let me get the lantern first.” Even so, I reciprocated, my own arms wrapped around his painfully thin frame.

“You can see in the dark,” Lupin replied, huffing a quiet laugh. 

“I had meant that more for your sake, pearl.”

Lupin rocked on his feet in time with the ship. “When we get to land,” he said, “I’m going to stay with you on the ship.”

I sighed. “You really shouldn’t…”

“I want to.” 

“Lupin, I’m perfectly capable of spending time on my own. I’ve done it for more than a century already, let alone a few days.” To soften my tone, I raised a hand to pet at his shaggy hair. “Besides, it’s not healthy for a man to be deprived of land for too long.”

“I can give a list of supplies to Goemon and have him take lead.”

I pulled back and took the tip of his chin between my thumb and forefinger, pinching down. I looked him in the eye. “You’ll do no such thing, okay?”

His eyes were wide. I knew why. He was staring at mine, inky black in the dark with a low, luminescent glow that could only be seen without the light of day. 

A decade ago, I would have never showed any man this side of me. I detest it that much, no matter how much Lupin would praise how much he loved to look at them.

He looked at my eyes. “You’re gorgeous like this,” he mumbled, “you know that?”

I could feel my human façade melting away, much as I hated when it did. “That wasn’t an answer.” I muttered.

Lupin smiled. “I know! I’m still set on it, no matter what you say.” 

I watched as his eyes glanced from my face to my back. His expression was nothing if not delighted at what he saw there, the real centerpiece of my existence.

To be cursed as a kraken that walks among men is to be given a form that takes great effort to keep at bay. The ten tentacles upon my back cannot be seen under normal circumstances. I do my best to keep it that way. 

Sometimes, when I let my guard down, they emerge. 

I felt them form and writhe against me. They quivered and reached for nothing in particular, rubbing against one another a quiet, slithery sound. They gravitated towards Lupin and planted themselves upon his back, pulling him closer to me. 

He giggled in that mad, wild way of his, eyes flashing in the dark. “Alright, fine! How about a compromise then?” he asked, taking a hand and sliding it along one of my tentacles, immediately coating his hand in mucous. “How about I go into town for one day, then I’ll come back to the ship. How’s that sound?”

“That’s not really much of a compromise…” But I also knew how bratty he was in getting his way. “Fine.”

“Everyone’s happy then.” Lupin nodded sagely. 

I huffed, but yes, I was happy. 

As long as I could be with him among the living, no matter how long that might be, I knew I would be.

I leaned in and kissed him, then kissed his ear. I felt him shiver as I let the points of my fangs gently press on his skin. 

Yes. In all of my long centuries of living, I had actually never been happier.

**Author's Note:**

> After seeing so many wonderful fanworks and being a lover of monsters such as myself, I had to contribute after writing in a mad frenzy. I barely bothered to edit this, and I apologize for any inevitable errors. 
> 
> I do not know who originally manifested the concepts I've seen so many talented and skilled folk express in art on Twitter, sadly.
> 
> I can at least say that these concepts, apart from the sharp teeth, are not originally my own.


End file.
